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Bruno jerked upright. “It was self defense. I told you.”
“Was it self-defense to turn your phone off for five days, too?”
Bruno rubbed his eyes. “You’ve been trying to call me?”
Petrie made a derisive sound. “So where were you?”
Bruno paused. “I was out digging up skeletons from my past.”
“Ah. How nice for you. Sounds like good exercise.”
“Oh, it was,” Bruno assured him.
“Got a whole closet full of those, do you?”
“Pretty much,” Bruno admitted.
“No cell coverage out there in skeleton country?”
“Nope,” Bruno said.
“I’ve got a few more for your collection. I arranged for genetic testing, for those bodies from your crime scene outside the diner. I also had Aaro’s friend tested, since he was so emphatic about her being involved. Plus the stiff who shot himself, the one I mistook for you. I got those samples fast-tracked, in a private lab, along with your bodily fluid, whichever one it was that the techs scraped up. Blood, vomit, what have you. And I got results today.”
Bruno waited. “Well?” he prompted. “And?”
Petrie was silent. “You really don’t know? You have no idea?”
The slush inside Bruno’s belly hardened into ice. It was another one of those icebergs. Secrets, hanging huge below the surface of dark water. “Stop being coy. Were they in the system? Who are they?”
“No,” Petrie said. “We didn’t ID them. They’re John and Jane Does. Why don’t you help me ID them, Ranieri? Come on. Give it up.”
“Me? Why me? What are you hinting at? Out with it!”
The car had gone silent.
“They’re your brothers. And your sister,” Petrie said.
Bruno sat there. Mouth wide. A sledgehammer had thwacked into his thorax. “What?” he choked out. “How? Who?”
“The girl. The stiff in the burning house. One of the two dead guys on the street. There’s this thing called the siblingship index. The stiffs share so much genetic material with you, the probability that they are your full brothers and sisters is overwhelming. Or double cousins. That is, if your mother’s sibling had offspring with your father’s sibling. The lab tech explained. It’s the number of genetic markers that match up.”
“My mother didn’t have any siblings,” Bruno said.
“Well, then. Back to scenario A. Full brothers and sisters, then.”
“But I don’t.” Bruno felt lost. “I can’t. Those people, the guys I fought—they were younger than me. Aaro’s girlfriend was in her early twenties. My mother’s been dead for twenty years. I never knew who my father was. I was twelve when she died. She was nineteen when she had me. She didn’t have any other children. I would have noticed.”
“You think? That’s fascinating. The jury will eat it up. The story of your deprived single parent childhood, how it led to the savage murders of your unacknowledged,unnoticedbrothers and sisters. Your defense lawyer will have lots to work with. The insanity plea will be cake.”
Bruno could think of nothing to say. His mouth worked.
“I hope I’ve given you something to think about. Thanks for keeping in touch, keeping me in the loop. You’re a real prince, Ranieri.”
“Petrie—”
“Just shut up, OK? I’m sick of your bullshit. Just shutup.”
Petrie hung up. The rain pounded on the windshield. The wipers did their fastsqueaka-scrape, squeaka-scrape.Bruno stared at the phone as if it were a poisonous snake that had just bitten him.
